Even with its worrisome winters and scorching summers, Kansas City is a wonderful place to live, a place of which to be proud. So much of what I love is either from or in Kansas City. This is the city I’ve called home since getting married a little over eight years ago. This is where I found the job I’ve so enjoyed, the job which allows me to take parental leave and be home with my daughter for the next six months. The same daughter, by the way, who was also born here. It is a city with which I’ve come to associate so many wonderful things in my adult life. Heck, even I was born here, but that’s a story for another time!

Kansas City has also introduced me to so many people whose friendships I’ve come to love and cherish. People like Shannon. It’s hard to think of anyone who so boldly exemplifies the concept of joie de vivre. Just hear her laugh. That’s all it takes. Really, you’ll see what I mean. Nobody I know has such a liberating, exuberant and contagious laugh. Perhaps that’s why I don’t mind the fact that she beats me in Scrabble every eight out of five times. And if you know me, you know I seriously hate losing. Still, Shannon is my best Scrabble buddy and when I asked if I could buy her a beer, she was warned it would involve a game of Scrabble, IRL (that’s “in real life” for those of you not versed in interwebs).

Shannon and I shared a bottle of The Sixth Glass, one of the offerings in Boulevard Brewing Co.’s (yet another reason to be proud of Kansas City) Smokestack Series. Our local brewery’s quadrupel ale is a world class beer, boasting some big caramel, brown sugar and dark fruit notes in perfect harmony with the bready, chewy, yummylicious (that’s a very sophisticated, technical term), toasty malts. This is a big beer, and I’m not just talking about the bottle. I mean, we should probably share it with a couple more people next time, what with its 10.5 ABV. I couldn’t let this month go by without savoring a Boulevard brew, and I’m so glad I got to share it with Shannon. Here’s to the City of Fountains!